Alumni News
2018 News Releases
Jacobs School alum charges startup to $1 million prize
October 15, 2018
A startup with a Jacobs School alumnus as its CTO won the $1 million grand prize at 43North, the startup pitch competition with the largest prize pool in the U.S. Christopher Ellis, a 2017 electrical and computer engineering graduate, is the CTO of SparkCharge, which is developing a portable electric vehicle charging system that can fit in the trunk of a car, to make distance limitations on electric cars a thing of the past. Full Story
A Q&A with serial entrepreneur and alumnus Sergey Sundukovskiy
September 13, 2018
Sergey Sundukovskiy earned a degree in computer science here at the Jacobs School of Engineering in 2001. He is now the CTO, CPO and co-founder of Carlsbad-based Raken, a start-up that provides an app and software suite for the construction industry. In this Q&A, Sundukovskiy talks about his career, his memories of UC San Diego and gives some career advice for recent computer science graduates. Full Story
Remembering Kenneth Bowles, Creator of UCSD Pascal
September 7, 2018
Kenneth (Ken) Bowles, a computer science pioneer and professor emeritus at the University of California San Diego, passed away on Aug. 15, 2018 in Solana Beach, Calif. He was 89. Bowles gained world renown for initiating and leading a largely student-driven project that culminated in the creation of the UCSD Pascal programming system in the late 1970s, which included a programming language, an operating system and a whole suite of other tools. UCSD Pascal influenced many aspects of computing that are now ubiquitous, including modern PCs and Macs as well as Sun Microsystem’s Java language. Full Story
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Graduating students honored with Awards for Excellence
June 15, 2018
Here are some highlights from the impressive resumes of the 2018 Jacobs School of Engineering student award winners, recognized by the IDEA Engineering Student Center and Dean Albert P. Pisano at the Ring Ceremony. Full Story
Engineering students and alumni sweep Triton Entrepreneur Night
June 7, 2018
Two teams led by students and alumni of the Jacobs School of Engineering won big at Triton Entrepreneur Night, the signature event of The Basement—an undergraduate business incubator founded in 2015 with support from alumni. The teams competitively pitched their ideas, Shark Tank style, to a panel of esteemed investors and entrepreneurs. Full Story
Above all, build trust
May 24, 2018
For Greg Papadopoulos, a UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering alumnus and partner at NEA, one of the largest venture capital firms in the world, engineering leadership is all about trust. Papadopoulos was awarded the Professional Gordon Fellow honor at the 9th annual Engineering Leadership Awards event run by the Gordon Engineering Leadership Center Full Story
New Blood Test Rapidly Detects Signs of Pancreatic Cancer
May 17, 2018
UC San Diego researchers have developed a test that can screen for pancreatic cancer in just a drop of blood. The test, which is at the proof-of-concept stage, provides results in under an hour. It's simple: apply a drop of blood on a small electronic chip, turn the current on, wait several minutes, add fluorescent labels and look at the results under a microscope. If a blood sample tests positive for pancreatic cancer, bright fluorescent circles will appear. Full Story
You Can Eat That Fork
May 17, 2018
Zhicong “Zack” Kong, a 2017 bioengineering alumnus from UC San Diego, created compostable, durable, edible cutlery that is unique for several reasons:the ingredients, a scalable manufacturing process and an innovative mold technology. Full Story
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Growing Computer Science Tutor Community Reunites at UC San Diego
May 16, 2018
More than 170 current and alumni computer science tutors reunited at UC San Diego in April 2018 to celebrate a program that has become a hallmark of the department and a model for the rest of campus. Full Story
Eight Jacobs School alumni recognized at UC San Diego's first 40 Under 40 awards
April 12, 2018
From startup founders to VPs at major technology companies, eight alumni of the Jacobs School of Engineering were recognized in the first 40 Under 40 awards bestowed by the University of California San Diego. Full Story
A wearable system to monitor the stomach's activity throughout the day
March 21, 2018
A team of researchers has developed a wearable, non-invasive system to monitor electrical activity in the stomach over 24 hours—essentially an electrocardiogram but for the gastro-intestinal (GI) tract. Applications include monitoring GI activity for patients outside of a clinical setting, which cuts down costs. Monitoring for longer periods of time also increases the likelihood of capturing abnormal events. Researchers detail their findings in the March 22 issue of Nature’s open access journal Scientific Reports. Full Story
A Campus Hub for Data Science
March 1, 2018
The cross-disciplinary Halıcıoğlu Data Science Institute, or HDSI, will become the campus hub for data science. It will help train students in the latest data-science techniques and transform the research of scholars who are now increasingly limited in making progress in their disciplines because of the need to make sense of the massive amounts of data generated from their research. Full Story
How Bacteria Steal Antibiotic-Resistant Genes
February 22, 2018
Researchers at the University of California San Diego Center for Microbiome Innovation have identified the mechanism by which a clinically relevant bacterium may gain antibiotic resistance, and have come up with a model for predicting the conditions under which it spreads. The findings, which establish a framework for understanding, quantifying and hopefully combating the emergence of superbugs, were published in a recent paper in eLife. Full Story
Using Computer Science and the Humanities to Step Back in Time
February 15, 2018
A collaborative group of researchers from the University of California San Diego traveled to Turin, Italy recently to digitally map an entire portion of the city—complete with historic architecture, expansive murals and stunning works of art. Full Story
UC San Diego innovator in data storage technologies elected to National Academy of Engineering
February 9, 2018
Eric Fullerton, a professor of electrical and computer engineering and nanoengineering at the Jacobs School and Director of the School's Center for Memory and Recording Research, was elected to the National Academy of Engineering “for invention and development of multilayer, high-density magnetic recording media.” His innovations made it possible for hard disk drives and non-volatile memories to store data at unprecedented levels. Full Story
Engineers, Technology Featured in New National Geographic Documentary on Maya 'Megalopolis'
February 6, 2018
Lost Treasures of the Maya Snake Kings," a new one-hour National Geographic special premiering FEb. 6 at 9/8 p.m. central, shows how LiDAR laser imaging technology is revolutionizing archaeology and features the WAVE data visualization technology created by researchers at the University of California San Diego. Albert Yu-Min Lin, who earned a Ph.D. at the Jacobs School of Engineering at UC San Diego, hosts the program. Full Story
From Class to Clinic
January 11, 2018
It’s not every day that an undergraduate class influences the way surgeons prepare for operations. But that’s exactly what happened with a freshman bioengineering class co-taught by then-PhD student Jason Caffrey ’11, MS ’13‚ and professor Robert Sah. Full Story